It’s just been brought to our attention by an alert reader that we’ve been shamefully failing in the months since the signing of the Edinburgh Agreement to give credit where it’s due to Scotland’s champion in Westminster, the Rt. Hon. Michael Moore:

What with that and Jenny Marra MSP apparently being single-handedly responsible for the ending of the split-tickets fiasco on ScotRail (1hr 41m), it looks like we owe all the Unionist parties a big vote of thanks today. Our gratitude is literally unmeasurable.

83 to “Hurrah for the Secretary of State!”

Of course the reality was that it was Salmond and the SG which secured the right of 16 years olds to vote in the referendum. Even the MSM conceded that one. I wonder if this is a new tactic by the Unionists, attempting to claim credit for things they are not responsible for?

It’s LibDem stock in trade. I saw it at its worst at a local election. An SNP coucillor had initiated a process to get a 40mph limit on the main road at a housing scheme. This takes consultation etc etc and up to 18 months to come into effect. Another SNP councillor took over at the next election and continued the process. He had to stand down, occasioning a by election. The LibDems found out that the new speed limits was about to be announced in a couple of weeks. They put a leaflet round saying they had petitioned for new speed limit and were about to achieve this.
Fortunately we found out in time to get the truth around

Could this be the first signs that the LibDems are about to jump ship from the Better Together camp and join the SNP in the YES camp?
This is about the only reason that I can think of that can explain this incredible metamorphosis by the LibDems in acknowledging the vote for 16 and 17 year olds.
As far as Jennie Marra is concerned well if you can’t attack the SNP then the next best thing is to “claim” responsibility for SNP policies. I know Labour are in the deepest of deep whatsits but they really are struggling these days to appear to be even the most basic of basic opposition party.

You missed out the fantastic Jim Murphy MP! He started campaigning for a new Barrhead High in 2007, strangely enough, just after SNP got in…but he took the credit when the announcement was made last September!http://www.jimmurphymp.com/community-campaigns/campaign-for-a-new-barrhead-hi.aspx
Does anyone actually know how many schools were built in the Labour years? I know that building council houses didn’t figure high on their list of priorities….but I don’t know anything about the schools?

O/T but I’m in my usual hotel in Glasgow, and picked up this mornings Herald in the bar, and read a great letter from a Roddie MacLeanan from Inverness, who – in a masterly deconstruction of “ïndependance will lead to perpetual tory rule”in England – calls himself a normalist, not a nationalist.
I like that – I’m a Normalist, normal being Finland, Denmark, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Latvia, Fiji………

Seems like that Lib Dem site has been getting a few posters visiting them from here. So much so that Caron Lindsay has replied to some of the comments. Here it is:

‘Calum, Nik and Rod: the franchise extension to 16 and 17 year olds is part of the Edinburgh Agreement negotiated very professionally and amicably between Mike Moore and Nicola Sturgeon. Given that both parties have long standing policy in favour of votes at 16 for all elections , it’s not really a surprise. However, Mike had to get the UK Government in general and David Cameron in particular to agree with it so I think he deserves a lot of credit for that.’

Ha, Cameron knows if he had started fiddling with the referendum telling us what to do his already shoogly ratings would have plummeted even further.

I actually find her stuff makes me laugh- she is the very definition of the word ‘partisan’.
It’s another comedy classic, but she will have to go some to scale the heights of her previous work. My personal favourite was when she complained that the date of the Independence Referendum almost clashed with the Lib Dem Conference in Liverpool (it’s the day after).
This apparently was ‘pretty disrespectful’ of the SNP, having the temerity to schedule the historic event close to ‘a major party political conference’.
Still makes me chuckle!

Unfortunately,when London’s man in Scotland has the press in his pocket he can pretty well say what he likes and get away with it.The printed press in Scotland have ceased to function as the protector of the public interest and are behaving simply as the voice of Westminster.They may justify this stance by “polls” sponsored from Anglo centric organisations which show,of course,that the majority opinion in Scotland is against self determination.At some point the “polls” are going to show a shift in opinion and only then will things start to change.

The liberals portray an image of woolly wholesomeness, sort of walt disney niceness without the commercialism. They are in fact extremely reactionary. It is instructive to remember that historically the tories were radicals supporting the people against the liberal right wingers. Of course times change the tories moved right and the liberals left then right again, then left then right, then a little bit green, but not too much, ooh lets move right again. Now I don’t know the difference. The tories are more barefaced liars, the liberals bigger hypocrites.

Secretary Of State for Scotland: such a hollow, pointless, powerless & wasteful role, anyone with an independent mind would have either
A) committed suicide because they were so bored that they lost the will to live
B) found a job at the airport which requires one to sit at an empty desk while verbally reminding passengers not to leave the building the wrong way

Option A is terminal and Option B means working in a terminal.
I don’t know if this is highly significant but I can say that it is more significant than Michael Moore.

An alternative name for Secretary of State for Scotland could be The Lord Protractor – a title that describes the role perfectly; always coming up with an angle that ensures any benefit from anywhere to anyone in Scotland is accordingly attributed to the person with the least amount of importance & the least degree of involvement; namely Michael Moore.

In opposition the Lib Dems made great play about abolishing the part time expensive post of Secretary of State for Scotland but now use the post to attack Scottish aspirations.
If the bbc in Scotland was impartial it would give the Greens and Independent MSPs as much tv coverage as the Lib Dems as they have the same umber of seats

OT. Sorry!
Regarding the article “We pay for this” (Dr. Fiona Watson misquote) posted on Sunday 30th.
I forwarded a link to the above article to Duncan Fenton convenor of the Society of William Wallace.
He wrote to thank me and copied me in on his letter of complaint to the BBC. Which I have posted in the comments section of “We pay for this”
This evening he has emailed me a copy of his reply from the BBC. It is pretty much as what you would expect. I have posted a copy of the reply in the comments of the above article.

I have just re read the BBCs response to the letter of complaint regarding Dr. Fiona Watsons misquotes. I am now pretty angry. How dare they insult anyone’s intelligence with this load of drivel. A six-year-old schoolboy could have come up with a better excuse. What arrogance, do they think our collective heads button up the back?
Is it just me? I would appreciate knowing what other readers make of it. Please comment.

JIM P.P.S. 18th sept 1914 1st Irish home rule bill cleared in w/minster. (NOTE THE DATE) it was backed by lab and libs——–they have been fighting for home rule for Scotland ever since—–didn’t you know that ?

My daughter is a MSYP and was given a speech by Moore fully supporting the franchise for sixteen and seventeen years. A week later these press releases and statements came out. She wrote to complain and received a two page response which in her words ” did not really say anything”. Could probably send you copy. It mostly was anti indy talking about how this needs to be uk wide and did not answer the inherent hypocrisy advocating for young people one week and toeing the Tory / Lib party line the next. Another of the many examples where the empowerment of Scots is repressed by the very office charged with looking after the wellbeing of our citizens.

o/t Sorry Rev. – Sky newspaper reviewers saying that Cameron is coming to Scotland to tell us that we need to keep Trident on the Clyde because Britain is now under threat from North Korea? Shades of Blair, dodgy dossiers and illegal wars methinks. I have thought for a while that Scottish Skier might be right that Cameron and Co. might actually want a YES vote. This might just be another piece in the jigsaw.

Tweeted Caron to ask about this from her article
“the greatest transfer of powers to Scotland in 350 years, leading the way in building a consensus on further devolution and Mike Moore’s careful work on the referendum process”http://carons-musings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/keep-faith-liberal-democrats-are-doing.html
Still no answer. She’s got me convinced though. 350 years?
She wouldn’t be out of place on Barnums Greatest show on Earth or should that be Bunkums?

as ukip goes balistic world ? lets see what happens when farage fever hits scotland , as our uk banks about to go down like a pack of cards , as cyprus did things world wide will never be the same ever ?…again , that encludes alex salmonds dream of independends ? we will all be heading for the ukip life rafts our banks now heading for this summer of desaster , you have been warned ?

Heh, was waiting for the additions Rev. Must admit to having a wee search for quotes myself last night. Mr Moore followed the Govt. line start to finish in terms of the Edinburgh agreement. Wonder why the rewriting of history now? I mean most folks are fully aware of Westminster intransigence over the past year on terms for the vote, I mean the headlines were big enough. Did they think people wouldn’t notice? Are they somehow hoping to bolster a Libdem vote? Regardless it leaves a gaping open goal.

I understand that Moore is actually an advocate of the youth vote, but then he was also meant to be in favour of abolishing the Scottish Office. So naturally once you become Scottish Secretary and you are part of the Libdem parliamentary party you pull a complete 180 on your beliefs.

Good to see Cameron venturing north today to lecture us as to how important WMD is, sited next to the largest concentration of Scottish population. As a Tory he will also believe it to be important that our people freeze, starve, and die an early death that we fund these monstrosities of the cold war and the worlds 4th largest defence budget (hes proud of that!)
I look forward to some stern questioning from our robust and probing Scottish media, or will I be mistaken and end up reading headlines tomorrow saying ‘ Salmond would leave us at the mercy of North Korea”.
I know what my moneys on!

A quick glance at the BBC website confirms that the state broadcaster leads the way with linking the North Korea story and government fed piece regards the importance of WMD for ”our” defence. I await the 45min warning a la Blair and Westminster readying to use its clout at Americas behest. Would be a good diversion for the plebs and their daily grind from austerity.

We must remember to thank Cameron personally for his and past Westminster governments commitment to housing nuclear arsenals on the Clyde. Its an honour to act as the official primary target of possible nuclear strikes on Britain.

Actually, there were quite a few schools built during the Labour years. However, most of them were built using Private Finance Initiatives, so they didn’t actually pay for them. They were built on the tick, so to speak, and future generations will pay for them at vastly inflated prices.

Career politicians are useless at most things. What they are good at is personal survival, jumping on bandwagons, and taking undeserved credit. I dare say if Scotland votes yes next year, and makes a big sucess of independence, many Labour and LibDem careerists will be saying they worked for it all along.

“Another of the many examples where the empowerment of Scots is repressed by the very office charged with looking after the wellbeing of our citizens”

I’m not saying the Scottish Office is doing a good job, but its not actually their role to look after the wellbeing of Scottish citizens – that’s the role of the Scottish Government. The Scottish Office are responsible for representing Scottish interests within the UK government and representing the UK government in Scotland, among other things.

Noticed that old Labour worthies like Ann Begg and Jim McGovern putting the boot in re disability and employment especially over Remploy. Unfortunately they forgot to tell us that it was UK Labour who stopped wage subsidies for employees with disabilities and started the demise of disability and employment services infrastructure.

On that basis, if one thinks about it… Any Secretary of State for Scotland should be completely impartial on Independence. It should be a neutral position in order to represent ALL citizens of Scotland accurately pre-Referendum.
Moore should not be promoting his own political beliefs.

I’m not saying the Scottish Office is doing a good job, but its not actually their role to look after the wellbeing of Scottish citizens – that’s the role of the Scottish Government. The Scottish Office are responsible for representing Scottish interests within the UK government and representing the UK government in Scotland, among other things.

The Scotland office budget is paid for in its entirety by the Scottish block grant before it get to the Scottish Government. It works against the Scottish Government. Its very much a case of the Westminster Government in Scotland.

That money would be better spent on services, job creation, infrastructure and many other worthwhile things in Scotland. It does very little good in its current State. The Liberals have been trying to get rid of the Scottish Office for years as they agree its not fit for purpose.

Don’t you know, if we vote yes in 2014 and get rid of Trident, we will be vulnerable to attack from North Korea? DC is travelling to Scotland today to remind us.

Nice that he therefor thinks that Glasgow is a worthwhile target then? I do not agree with his sentiments on keeping Trident at a time when the top 6% get a tax cut, while the rest of us see the cost of living get higher and many are facing additional further cuts to our standard of living. Then there is the ‘Bedroom Tax’ and cuts to disabled benefits. Labour took many disabled people off the unemployment numbers by reclassing their benefits – these are the benefits now being slashed.

All this without the housing stock and jobs to enable enough people back into the work place.

“Any Secretary of State for Scotland should be completely impartial on Independence. It should be a neutral position in order to represent ALL citizens of Scotland accurately pre-Referendum”

Well its the role of the Scottish Office to represent the UK government in Scotland, and the UK government is anti-independence.

Although the Scottish Office also has to represent ‘Scottish interests’ in the UK government, and clearly they aren’t representing a significant minority of Scots by not arguing on behalf of independence – although presumably they’d argue that they are representing the 78% of Scottish voters who voted for unionist parties in 2010.

@Luigi‘I dare say if Scotland votes yes next year, and makes a big sucess of independence, many Labour and LibDem careerists will be saying they worked for it all along.’

I’m sure you’re right. After 5th May 2011 they were all bricking it, and the ones that weren’t completely unmanned were doing a bit of rapid repositioning e.g. Foulkes telling anyone who’d listen that he’d always been a Federalist, and (I have it on good authority) a certain ermined member of the Celtic board making overtures to Salmond.
These are my principles, and if you don’t like them I have others.

Although the Scottish Office also has to represent ‘Scottish interests’ in the UK government, and clearly they aren’t representing a significant minority of Scots by not arguing on behalf of independence.

The Secretary of State for Scotland does not serve Scotland at all. He serves Westminster’s interests only. He is Westminster’s man in Scotland, some thing the man himself has been uncomfortable about.
The Liberals still in recent history, have wished to get rid of the post as they see it serves no useful purpose.

That money would indeed be better spent else where in the Scottish budget. Its a post which at best ties things up in bureaucracy.

Many people vote for their politicians not along party lines, but given their choice for which candidates stand locally, they feel may do the better job, they vote against one party at Westminster elections by voting for another. It is worth noting that the SNP do not stand in English wards, so are unable to offer the voter an SNP government at Wesminster – something they strongly voted for in 2011.

Unionist parties aren’t standing up for many in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, far less Scotland. Cameron did not get a majority in 2010, but instead went into coalition with the Liberals who wish to end the Secretary of State post and The Scottish office.

The Scottish Government did at least get a large majority from the Scottish people. I think many in Scotland think/have been led to beleive that the Scottish Government has far greater powers than it has in fact got. Perhaps there is even some complacency in that they feel the Scottish Government can somehow forever shield the policies of Westminster from them. I am very happy that they have been able to get this far, but they don’t have deep enough pockets from our TAX revenue handed back from Westminster to continue this for much longer, without cutting spending in other areas.

I think that’s exactly the problem. The unionist line seems to be turning into, don’t worry about Westminster, because Holyrood will protect you.

Well, it can’t. With the best will in the world it can’t, when the purse-strings are tightly held by Westminster. And if a Labour government gets in at Holyrood again, it won’t protect us. Lamont has made that quite clear.

The only way to protect ourselves from Westminster is to ensure that it’s somebody else’s problem. Somebody else, who has the voting strength to change it, if the will is there – something we will never have.

Just a thought – we often criticise North Korea for spending beyond its means on defence, at the expense of it’s poor, “starving” citizens. Are we any different?

Certainly right now, we are in the same boat as North Korea when it comes to spending money on WMD’s, rather than on our own population. Perhaps if we did spend more on our own population in other areas we would be all the richer for it in many ways.

North Korea is however very different than any parts of the Western world. They closed themselves off to the West a long time ago and have only looked inwards. The West are keen to have sanctions placed on North Korea. N.Korea obviously feels rather threatened by the West’s involvement and is probably largely reacting to these threats from the West

The piece that had been gained between the North and South is in serious jeopardy, yet America (and other Western countries – UK included) follow the bullies line – Do as I say Not as I do. So the only countries that are allowed to have powerful WMD’s are only allowed them if they fall into line with America and the rest of the West?

The sooner we get rid of WMD’s the better. Having them only ramps up the antagonism when we should be encouraging trade and offering guidance on how to improve their country.

We buy a lot of electrical goods from South Korea. We might not eat dogs, but that is more of a cultural difference. We don’t eat whale meat like the Japanese either I might add. Doesn’t stop either side doing business and having cultural ties. Scotland has had cultural ties with Japan for a very long time – Weirs and Mitsubishi are two good examples going back well over a hundred years – and don’t forget some of the ‘Glasgow boy’s’ were out in Japan for many a year.

Among Michael Moore’s assertions (favourite Johann Lamont word) was that his personally led delegation to Brazil last year was specifically to promote Scottish trade with that country, I read just the other day that Brazil is one of the few countries that has since DECREASED its imports of Scotch Whisky. I wonder if Moore will claim credit for that too?

The Liberal democrats over the years, have shouted long and hard that the post of secretary of state for Scotland was irrelevant and should be abolished. Just like their dishonest ‘PROMISE’ regarding tuition fees, they gave up any such desire as soon as they had the slightest chance of a Westminster cabinet position. Therefore we now have Michael Moore in post, a man who ironically wanted the role abolished.
Michael Moore, MP, a man bought and sold for Westminster’s ‘gold’. A man of limited integrity and zero credibility.

The obligation of Michael Moore as secretary of state for Scotland, is to represent Scotland in Westminster, not the other way around. I do believe Mr Moore has singularly failed to read his job description. To suggest he has secured anything, including 16 year old votes, for Scots, is bordering on the surreal.

Why do Britnat unionists and their Libdem supporters choose to tell bare faced lies all the time??

I look forward to a post-independence Scotland when the Lib Dems, Labour, and quite possibly the Tories are all telling us how much they supported independence all along and how Scotland becoming a nation again was entirely down to the campaigning of Labour, against the SNP who didn’t really want it.

Cath,
Aye indeed, the history re-writers will state categorically that the cowardly SNP really wanted devomax, and that it was only by the courageous LibLabs forcing the issue, that Scottish independence was finally achieved. Aren’t they wonderful?

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